Man sent to jail for buying guns for others

March 26, 2010|By Matt Birkbeck | Of The Morning Call

A Bethlehem man was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in prison for buying guns for others from a store in Whitehall Township.

David Colon purchased five handguns between April 2004 and December 2006 from the Army & Navy store at 1045 Grape St. Prosecutors said Colon signed the Firearm Transaction Record claiming the guns were for him.

Four of the guns were 9 mm pistols and one was a .45-caliber pistol. Four guns remain missing, prosecutors said, while one was found in 2007 in New York City in the possession of a Bronx man arrested on a drug charge.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel said Colon traded on his ''clean record'' to make the straw purchases for others.

''Straw-purchasing contributes to the culture of intimidation and violence on the part of those who trade in illegal guns,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gallagher. ''Those who straw-purchase firearms are playing Russian roulette.''

Colon was charged with five counts of making false statements to a federal firearms licensee.